Officials Silent After R.33 Meeting

Mum was the word after a meeting yesterday in which county officials and state legislators discussed the status of the Route 33 extension project with state Transportation Secretary Howard Yerusalim.

State Rep. William C. Rybak, in whose Harrisburg office the 30-minute meeting was held, said all parties agreed not to discuss the substance of their talks. "The agreement was that we should not release any information. It might be premature."

Yerusalim said the discussion centered mainly on the need for a supplemental environmental impact statement in light of recent objections from the U.S. Interior Department and the state Agricultural Land Condemnation Board to the proposed path of the road.

A final decision on the alignment of the road, choosing between two identified alternatives, originally was scheduled for September. But because of those objections, the decision has been pushed back to June 1991.

In the meantime, Yerusalim said of PennDOT, "We're looking at more alignments than we looked at before, especially with regard to farmland."

The county paid $500,000 for the draft environmental impact statement that was completed in January. However, Yerusalim said PennDOT would proceed with the supplemental statement on its own.

County officials have expressed concern about the state's position that the local area pay for half the project.

State Rep. Robert Freeman, D-136th District, who requested the session, said two weeks ago that he expected funding for Route 33 to be a key component of the meeting. But both Rybak, D-135th District, and Yerusalim said the question of how to pay for the project, which a recent study said could cost as much as $91.5 million in 1992, was not discussed.

"This is not the time to worry about money," Rybak said Yerusalim told them. "That will come later on down the road. We didn't talk about that at all."

Yerusalim said, "You have to do step A before you can do step X." He said, "I don't think funding is the issue at this point in time."